A dream is a “spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form, of the actual situation in the unconscious”
— CG Jung, 1916.
Some people would prefer to post their dreams without having them interpreted. Thus, below you will find some dreams with no interpretations and others that are interpreted with great detail. New dreams will be added to this page at no particular intervals. I will post and interpret those dreams that are the most interesting and revealing.
Below is a short, flexible format and you can use some or all parts of it when interpreting your own dreams. There are several different ways to interpret dreams. Dream interpretation depends on a person’s belief system and the approach that the individual takes. I prefer to take a pragmatic approach and first look for real life causes for the dream.
However, keep in mind that dreams can be interpreted on many different levels or depths. Dreams are something like onions — there are layers and layers — once you understand a dream’s meaning on one level, underneath there may be another level or layer to interpret. The layer that you interpret and hold meaningful depends on the level or your awareness or consciousness!
Basic steps in dream interpretation:
1. Write down the entire dream, including all activities, colors, people and setting.
2. Identify your feelings in the dream; from beginning to end and how you felt upon awakening.
3. List symbols that you can look up in the dream dictionary. The dictionary will give you some ideas, but the definitions are very general and may not apply to you specifically. It may be very beneficial to look up the central symbol of the dream in the encyclopedia or a regular dictionary. For example, if dreaming about a toad, look it up and find out about its life cycle, coloring, reproductive habits or mythical symbolism.
4. Do some free association; try to write down any thoughts that come to mind in regard to the activities, people, the setting and the emotional content of the dream. You can begin by doing free association with the symbols that you identified in step two. Personal associations are subjective associations and may be used to interpret your dreams. At times, objective or impersonal associations, such as a general knowledge about the dream symbol may be more helpful. Consider the following:
What is a dream symbol?A dream symbol is an image from the unconscious that is important for you to understand in the present moment. Symbols can be understood subjectively and personal associations can be made to understand the dream’s message. However, at times, the objective associations of the dream symbol may be more revealing and meaningful. For example, if dreaming about a ruby, you may have personal associations such as: I inherited my grandmother’s ruby ring or the ruby is my birth stone. These associations may be important, but if you consider the objective definition of a ruby it may bring you closer to the essence of the dream’s message. Thus, a ruby is a precious stone harvested from deep within the earth. Historically it represents healing and irrepressible light. With these associations, one may conclude that the dream has to do with inner wealth which may be harvested though introspection and that may bring about healing and enlightenment, or that the deepest level of healing is needed in the dreamer’s life.
Each dream symbol may have multiple meanings and can be applied to many aspects of the dreamer’s life. Thus, understanding the ruby dream with the use of subjective and personal associations may be meaningful and valuable on one level, but it may also have a wider and deeper meaning when looking at it with objective associations.
5. Additional questions that you can ask yourself when interpreting your dreams:
Does the dream address any of my larger issues in life?
Does the dream point out a specific issue, concern, or situation?
Is the dream spiritual in nature?
Is the dream mystical or prophetic in any way?
What have I learned from this dream; what is its message?
5. Write down what you think your dream means. This may be difficult in the beginning, but with practice you will get better. If you need assistance, please refer to the Dream Analysis page of this web site.
6. A single dream may be important and revealing, but it is very pale in comparison to the insight that can be gained by studying our dreams over an extended period of time. Thus, keep an ongoing record of your dreams, read them from time to time, and enjoy the process of self discovery and the journey into your unconscious!
7. The ultimate goal of studying dreams is to obtain a deeper sense of self. To develop a satisfying sense of who we are and to integrate the various parts of self. To come into awareness in regard to our true nature and to see with more than with our mind’s eye. Dreams take us to the deepest levels, the highest levels, the levels beyond our conscious experiences and expectations. Most of your dreams are about you, your characteristics, your needs, your unresolved issues.They are more about you than anything else. Don’t ask what the dream is tell you about the future, or about the feelings that others have for you; ask what the dream is telling you about yourself. All dream content goes back to the dreamer with the purpose of balancing the unconscious with the conscious and of gaining enlightenment and integration of all parts of the self.
My blue cat dream
Late one afternoon I was standing in the kitchen of my office building and a cat came running in the open back door. The cat was beautiful. It was sleek, short-haired, colored baby blue with a lot of tan mixed in, very unusual. I never saw the cat’s eyes. The cat had 2 tags, one for rabies and the other identification tags. The name of the cat was “Sir” something-or-other, some long and impressive name.
I picked it up and yelled for Kristy, my co-worker who is a big cat lover (she has four or five). But she had already left for the day. The rest of the dream centered on my concern in trying to contact the owners because this was obviously a purebred and expensive cat. I couldn’t quite read the phone # on the ID tag. The cat kept squirming its head away. A couple of times it jumped out of my arms. I was afraid it would run away but I was always able to take just a couple steps and retrieve the cat. Then the cat would nuzzle me and cuddle, as if it felt comfortable and safe with me. It was a very sweet cat. Its fur was very soft to touch.
I decided to take the cat home with me until I got in touch with the owners. Where I lived was a city and house unknown to me in real life. I have two small dogs in real life and they were barricaded in another room of the house. But they got out and I was afraid they would chase and scare the cat. But they were only curious and sniffed the cat and then jumped up on the couch and just sat there like statues, one on each end. The cat would alternately cuddle and then jump down. I sensed not because it didn’t like me, it just wanted to explore.
I was still very concerned with getting in touch with the owners, but I was having a good deal of trouble getting the phone number right. On the id tag, the numbers were all jumbled together and I either couldn’t copy them down right or couldn’t dial them in right on the phone. All of a sudden on the table was a document about the cat and on the bottom was the phone number highlighted in orange. But I couldn’t quite read the numbers through the orange. I was very frustrated. Suddenly my friend Rob (we have dated as friends for several months) was there and he became quite exasperated with me. I handed him the phone and said “Here you do it if you think you can do better.” He dialed the number and handed me back the phone. The line was ringing when I woke up.
When I woke up I was mad that I didn’t get to find out if the owners were going to answer the phone!
Simple Interpretation
Your dream was interesting and I will make a few comments about it. I am sorry if I am wrong in anything that I say, but remember that I don’t know anything about you!
Animals in dreams represent our intuitive and emotional self. In the dream the cat was beautiful and sweet. You could not locate it’s owners. It could be because you are the owner of that “cat.” The cat is symbolic of a part of your inner self. The characteristics that cats represent can be understood by thinking about the “essence,” or the associations that we make when we think about cats. Cats are territorial animals. They are guardians of their space. They are also aloof and a part of them can never be domesticated. Culturally, there is a sexual connotation in regard to cats.
Thus, in your dream you found that special part of yourself — the sexy, soft and curious you (the cat within). But, you insisted on giving it back to a very elusive and inaccessible person. In your dream, the unconscious locates and hands to you all the positive characteristics that are represented by the dream cat. Those characteristics may be inaccessible to you consciously, or in daily life. Also, the last part of the dream is interesting. The color orange is generally associated with the reproductive system and therefore sexuality. The phone number to the cat’s owner was highlighted in orange, but only your boyfriend could read it. Maybe you have come to the point in this relationship (or in your own psyche) where you want to and need to be sexy and curious, just like the blue cat.
Robbery
I have this dream about 3 to 4 times a year for the past five years. I own an apartment or a house and do not live in it. It is fully furnished with all of my valuables. When I visit this house or apartment it has just been robbed of all of my belongings. It has been broken into because I neglected to either lock a door or a window. I know beforehand that I should have taken simple precautions to protect the premises, like lock the door or window but I always leave them open. After I find I have been robbed, I am outraged and mad at myself for not taking those precautions that I told myself to take. I am so angry that I wake up and cant go back to sleep for at least two to three hours. ANY IDEAS??????
Simple Interpretation
First, it may be helpful to you to note what is going on in your daily life around the time that these dreams occur. The unconscious generally sends up messages repeatedly and until we figure out the message of the dream.
The house in a dream is symbolic of you. You are the house and in you are all the valuables that you need.
This dream could be occurring when something negative is going on in your life. That is, for example, when you leave yourself emotionally vulnerable; when you are not on guard and someone in your life takes advantage of you or hurts you. At times, people that are very close to us, for example our parents, sense when we are feeling good and when our defenses are down, and at those times they choose to bring up hurtful issues or “attack” us for what they perceive to be our shortcomings.
Alternatively, the dream may be a form of compensation. You may be having this dream when everything is going really well and you are very successful — in your private life, with money, etc..
As I said, in order to figure out what this dream means, you first need to notice what is going on in your life at the time that the dream occurs.
Dead Cat
First… Thank you… I’m hoping you can interrupter this dream for me… This was disturbing to me… In my dream I’m pulling a dead cat out of my cheek!!…. Weird!!
Simple Interpretation
To interpret the dream, you need to understand the symbolism of the cat. Cats are generally territorial, predatory animals. Even when they are out pets, their nature is never completely tamed. In pop culture, cats may also be symbols of feminine sexuality.
Think about what cats mean to you — maybe something personal or maybe not.
It seems to me that in the dream you extracted from your body an energy that was no longer viable. I don’t particularly like that dream image. Maybe you can work on developing some of your own “cat” like characteristics. Those may include a need to protect your own territory, an ability to defend yourself when attacked and the ability to express your own intuitive and strong emotions.
Menstrual blood
I look down at myself, I am nude and blood is gushing out from my vagina, as if I am menstruating. I can also feel a mild degree of cramping. The location is nondescript because that is all I can see. What little background there is, is white. My thoughts just before I wake up are “Oh, I guess I’m going to die”, but it is very matter of fact.
Simple Interpretation
It is not uncommon for women to dream about menstrual blood. Take notice when you are having these dreams and if they are occurring just before you get your period.
Dreaming about your own blood is usually a good thing. It suggests a cleansing of some type. Us woman have a lot of emotional and psychic stuff attached to the way our bodies function. We have issues of all kinds that include having kids or not having them. At times, being a woman is very painful and not for any other reason other than our very nature (biological and psychological roles).
You may have gotten the idea that you are going to die, but aren’t we all. Also, the death does not need to be that of the body, the death could be to a part of self that needs to go. As we move from one phase of our lives to another, we need to allow parts of us to die, and I don’t mean this in a negative way. The less productive, more destructive and unhappy parts of us should die as we get older and acquire understanding and strength. The unconscious message of this dream may be to let things flow — the flow of life — that is symbolized by blood.
Ten of Clubs
The dream started with me driving in my car and I had a deck of regular playing cards with me. The cards we very large in size. I pulled into some type of store, wasn’t clear what kind of store (maybe a furniture store?). I went inside holding my cards and the salesman walked beside me as I noticed light blue indoor-outdoor carpet. I dropped one of my cards on the way out “not paying it much attention.” I left as if to drive to the next town and pulled into another store. As I got out of the car the salesman I had just left pulled up and handed me the card I dropped at his store. It was very clearly the ten of clubs as I thanked him he looked at me as if to say “did you notice the ten of club?” As I woke up, I was thinking how nice it was for him to drive that far to return the card. It was as if some kind of message was being sent to me but I have no idea what it could be?
Simple Interpretation
Most dreams are meaningful, although it is difficult to figure out their meanings. I am going to make a few suggestions that might help you figure things out. Also, please remember that the unconscious sends up the same message many times and in many dreams. Thus, if you can’t figure this one out, there will be other dreams with the same or similar message in it, that you will be able to interpret or see with greater clarity.
The car represents the physical self and the ego and the car ride represents a portion of your life’s journey. In the dream you had large cards, which may be associated with gambling. In life, even when we are not real gamblers, we gamble with many things. To say that we gamble is simply to say that we take chances because we are uncertain. These chances could be in the areas of personal relationships, a career, were we choose to live or even simple things such as trying a new restaurant (we take a chance and hope that the food will be really good).
All of that aside, to me the dream may have a different meaning altogether. A club is also a weapon. A weapon is a symbol of power. The number 10 is a nice even number that, as all even numbers, may be considered feminine. So, in your dream you are moving along and stop to shop. Shopping is generally associated with trying to get the things that one needs. As you were going along, you may have dropped your own feminine power and forgot all about it. In the dream, the unconscious forces inside of you follow you and tell you “here is what you dropped and forgotten — take it,” “pick up the power (and possibly some luck) that you forgotten about.”
I hope that some of this makes sense to you. Since I don’t know you, this dream interpretation is general. I can’t make associations between the dream and your life, but you can. Ask yourself if you have forgotten some of your own inner powers and if you are in need of them currently. The unconscious is attempting to make you more familiar with it your unconscious psychic energy. This is the primary function of dreams. That is, dreams make it possible for us to become more conscious beings, which in turn leads to greater self-understanding and more happiness.
Mysterious girl
I have a real dilemma on my hands and I really need some advice.
This is how is goes, I am a 32 year old male and for as long as I can remember, I suppose I was maybe 4 or 5, I have had a series of dreams. These dreams always took place in different settings, but they always contained the same face. These dreams are so vivid that if I close my eyes for a moment, I can smell the grass, taste the air and swear if I didn’t know better I was physically there. I have had these dreams all my life and the picture in my mind was of a girl I had never meet and didn’t know. As the years passed the dreams became more frequent and more vivid, but the face was always of the same girl, yet it aged as time went by as well. I didn’t know what to think over the years and ended up chalking it up as a fantasy, calling it my dream girl.
Well, one day while I was at work when my boss brought in a new employee to be trained and guess what? It was the same girl I had dreamed of since I was 4 or 5. At first, I didn’t know what to think but I was 100% sure it was her. One thing led to another and it turned out that both of us felt that we were destined to be and that fate had brought us together. As time passed we declared our love and things were going smooth. The hitch is that right before I had meet her I began a divorce proceeding and was in the mist of all that, which really screwed my head up a bit. I un-intentionally hurt her, not by being unfaithful or anything of the kind but my being scared and pushing her away.
Now she says she doesn’t love me and abruptly plans to marry another and that we can never be. 30 days ago she told me she loved me and would marry me and then that afternoon she tells me she doesn’t love me and plans to marry another. I am devastated, because to me I have been in love with this woman all my life, I continue to have dreams of her, I see us at different points in life and I see us old together. I believe this is the woman for me without a shadow of a doubt. Can you offer some advice to the validity of my dreams? Can you offer some advice as a woman to what course I may take?
Simple Interpretation:Dreams never stop amazing me because of the stories such as yours. The first thing that I would question is if the girl in your dreams is actually the girl that you met at work and fell in love with. Do you continue to dream about her?
If she was indeed the girl that you have been dreaming about then there are several explanations and non of them can be considered purely scientific. In the dream state we access the unconscious. It is a mysterious place and we have no direct contact with it. The unconscious realm for some is the place of the soul and the realm that is beyond this physical world and reality. At times, we have unconscious relationships with people. The girl, and now the woman, and you have been having a life long unconscious relationship. Finally, you met up in the physical world and went with it. Because of your circumstances you had ambivalence and did not treat her the way she needed or wanted to be treated. Now she is rushing into a marriage that you feel is not the best thing for her.
At times, the relationships that we have in the unconscious world are just not meant to be in this psychical world. You will most likely continue to have a relationship with her in your inner world.
You asked me what I think as a woman. I think that if I really loved someone then I would not marry another, especially if the person that I love is calling me and attempting to make things right. You cannot force yourself on her. All you can do is make your position clear and try to reassure her that you want to build a relationship. If she does not respond to you, then you need to move on. You got involved with her before you were ready. It could be that you also needed time to heal your emotional wounds and resolve issues that led to your divorce.
In the long run, things tend to work out the way that they were meant to be. Thus, the only thing that is important is that we are honest with ourselves and that we are reasonable in our actions. If you need further assistance, I suggest that you return to the web site and click on to “Dream Analysis” page.